The European reconnaissance : selected documents / edited by J.H. Parry
1968, First Edition. New York : Walker & Co. Very good cloth copy in a good if somewhat edge-nicked and dust-dulled dust-wrapper, now mylar-sleeved. Very light foxing to page edges. Remains well-preserved overall. Item #448207
Physical description; xii, 381 pages, plates, facsimile, maps 24 cm. Notes; Includes bibliographical references (pages 365-374). Contents; Introduction -- Theories, rumors & travellers' tales (The cosmographical ideas of Sir John Mandeville, from Mandeville's travels ; Mandeville on the Great Chan of Cathay, from Mandeville's travels ; Treavel in disguise, from the Travels of Nicolo de' Conti) -- Africa (Prince Henry of Portugal, from The chronicles of the discovery and conquest of Guinea ; West Africa in the fifteenth century, from The votages of Cadamosto ; The Cape of Good Hope, from Esmeraldo de situ orbis) -- India (From Monbasa to Malabar, from the journal of the first voyage of Vasco de Gama ; Vijayanagar, from The itinerary of Ludovico di Varthema ; The Portuguese in South India, from The book of Duarte Barbosa). Indonesia, China and Japan (The Portuguese in Malacca and the Spice Islands, from the Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires ; The first Portuguese embassy to China, from the letter of Cristavão Vieira from prison in Canton ; St. Francis Xavier's first impresssions of Japan, from his letter from Kagoshima) -- The Americas (Columbus' landfall, from his Journal ; A new world, from Vespucci's letters ; The first sight of Mexico, from The true history of the conquest of New Spain ; Cortés' description of the city of Mexico, from his second letter from New Spain -- Hernando Pizarro's journey in search of gold, from the narrative of Miguel de Astete ; An unsuccessful. Inquistador, from Francisco Vásquez Coronado's letter from Tiguex). The Pacific (The first sight of the South Sea, from Oviedo's Historia general ; From Patagonia to the Philippines, from Pigafetta's narrative of Magellan's voyage ; From the Philippines to Fukien, the first Spanish embassy to China, from the narrative of Fray Martín de Rada) -- The Arctic to Cathay (In the wake of the Norsemen, from letters by Raimondo de Soncino, Pedro de Ayala, Pietro Pasqualigo and John Day ; North America a continent, from the narrative of Giovanni da Verrazzano ; The St. Lawrence not a strait, from the Voyages of Jacques Cartier ; The northeast passage leads to Russia, from Clement Adams' narrative of Chancellor's voyage ; The northwest passage leads nowhere, from The three voyages of Martin Frobisher). The explorer's trade (Sailing directions, from Esmeraldo de situ orbis ; The uses of astronomy, from Esmeraldo de situ orbis ; The complete navigator, from William Bourne's Regiment for the sea ; The minor horrors of the sea, from the letters of Eugenio de Salazar). Subjects; Discoveries in geography.
Price: €18.00